I have seen this in the forum several times, but most where older. I am wanting to get into DF...don't have the cash yet for turbines.

I know years ago the JHH F-86 was a good starter jet? Is it worth it being a 46 size and etc?

Byron F-16 --- Can't get

TGA - F-15 - I guess the shut down.

YA Starfire II - ?

Looking for ideas and information here. Build logs etc as well. I have a DF Enforcer In am working on right now, but looking for something else.

Yellow has some nice stuff. I've had the F-16c and the starfire. My starfire was JMP, before Yellow aquired it. A friend built the JHH F86 with an OS91. Came in a little heavier but was a great flier. Top Gun F 15 is a good one, should still be able to find one. I know a guy who has a kit. Don't know if he would part with it. BVM has several kits scale or sport that would be great choices for DF.

Finish the Enforcer, it's a blast to fly. I've got about 120 flights on my DF Enforcer. I don't fly it much any more. I'm up to about 150 flights on my Turbine Enforcer so far.

I can understand your desire for something more scale like. Do a search in the jets forum and you'll find a number of threads for first jet or newbie recommendations. In addition to the ones mentioned a Byron Mig 15, Yellow F-16, or BVM Maverick would also be good. I'm not a fan of the 46 sized jets. They are not much cheaper than a 91 and your options are very limited if you want to transfer the engine/fan/pipe to another plane.

Check out the Jets Classified section to see if you can find a deal on a good used one.

Joe

My opinion would be to go with the Y/A starfire, by far the best DF that I have personally had the chance to own/fly. The intake and exhaust design are super efficient, (design just for a DF unit). Mine can take off of a rough grass field no problems and top speed is well over 150mph. Plus it lands fairly slow and has an excellent glide.

You can get them from www.yellowaircraftplanes.com

Also Bob Parkinson seems to be trying to make a come back onto the jet scene I purchased a video from him and the planes look impressive but I have no personal experience. His website is.

http://www.rcjets.com/

Also the new A-7 ARF from JHH looks to be a good one as well.

www.jethangar.com

I have a Byron F-16 complete RTF with very little work, a new Byron F-16 fuse and maybe foam parts also. I have extra landing gear mount brackets, fan unit, starter probe, probably an O.S. 91 or two. I have a NIB Topgun F-15.

I have an almost new BVM Aggressor III with Viojet and BVM .91 RTF in white paint set up for speed when we were having speed events at all the jet rallies. I also have a RTF Ultra Viper complete setup for speed. My son Paul went through the JPO traps with this one at 233 mph in no wind. I have many BVM spares, including engines, landing gear, Viojets, several BVM .91s, a box full of spare parts, and more. I have just about decided to start selling it off since we have not flown any of our d/f models since going turbine.

I would not recommend the Aggressor III or the Ultra Viper for starters. These are very hot airplanes. The F-16 and TG F-15 would be perfect.

I will have to inventory everything over the next couple of days and post it for sale.

Only thing I don't like about the byrons is that they're such a pain to get started. The engine is mounted inverted and you can only access the engine/fuel system from the bottom of the plane. Depending on how you have your fuel system setup seems like it always wants to flood out the engine, everyone I knew always ended up using hemostats to keep fuel from flooding out the engine, then releasing them after putting on the glow ignitor and getting the engine spinning on the starter, which is usally a two man operation, or you could mount the plane on a stand and start inverted, but as a I remember I still used hemostats.

Anyway I just like the ease of use of the convetional dynamax/ramtac fan unit, everything can easily be done by one person, with the plane sitting on its landing gear. As a matter of fact I think the TG F-15 even with a byron fan has everything mounted up right and accessable from a top hatch, just the actually byron planes had the fan unit upside down.

i never had any problems with the Byron setup w/ an OS 91 VR mounted inverted, i did use their manifold which prevented the flooding out problems some people had who didn't use it, the PITA was the 4' starter shaft up the tail pipe, i never did like that. they flew great just not overly fast and the cheater hole required some trim mixing to prevent a nose up if throttle was quickly chopped. I've seen allot of the F-16's being sold here and there the past few yrs, they are good starter jets as are most of Yellow Aircraft ones and if you can find a BVM F-86 they are excellent beginner jets.

kc

Thanks for the info, I am going to finsih the enforcer for sure, just looking for a second plan I guess you can call it. I am thinking a starfire? Would that be a bad choice after the enforcer?

Also keeping a open eye for TGA F-15 or Byron F-16

I had a Starfire about 8 or so yrs ago and thought it was one heck of a sweet flying plane, I've heard the same from everyone who has flew it with turbine power too.

kc

go with a bvm maverick...theres one on rcu rite now for a reasonable price. they fly great and with a bvm viojet and a bvm 91 this thing will scream.
ive been flying mine from a 375 foot runway for a long time with no problems. takes off in half the runway and lands the same with flaps and brakes. cant go wrong.


....mike

Sent you a PM

I've had one JetHangar F-86 powered with the old OS 46 VRDF and at 10.5 pounds dry it still flew 'respecfully', even at Utah's 4200' elevation. Not blistering fast but realistic speed. However, with the currently available OS 46 VXDF and keeping the weight down a little bit, this would fly exceptionally well! Jethangar's sabre kit has a nice, friendly airfoil which does well at slow speeds too, you can't go wrong with this combination. Just build it with retracts and flaps, the speed brakes aren't needed except for scale apeal. I have another of these kits that I plan on using a Wren 44 turbine in, another perfect combination.